b. sanitation, general health environment: "The low level of sain in most third-world countries creates a burden for their hospitals."

c. to bless, especially by making the sign of the cross over someone.

d. Acronym. SAIN was used between novices in celibate communities and was written across the sealed flap of an envelope, usually together with a cross, and stood for Signum Anti Impius Necessitas. The novices, with their poor command of Latin, used this as a translation of ‘sealed against wicked desires’ and it represented their fight against carnality.

e. A form of precipitation which is mostly rain but has some snow or sleet content. An expression from northern England.

f. the line of debris left on a beach at the high tide mark.

g. [baseball] term used to describe a once successful major league pitcher who later succeeds as a pitching coach--after Johnny Sain, "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain."

h. From the Scots Gaelic sabbhain; "to your health".

i. Name of a plant found in W. England and Wales whose leaves were often used in poultices; (dialect) a poultice.

j. A substance derived from shellfish used in making incense.

k. A device for seeding clouds for the purpose of producing rain.

l. The diameter of a globular body; the diameter of a solid spheroid, especially of a cannonball

I'd'a picked D too but I don't like the Latin. Now if it had been Sigillum...

Then I have to eliminate A, B, C, H, I, and J, all dealing in one way or another with health or spiritual well-being, as translucent attempts to look like valid remote derivations, and therefore all attempts to seduce the unwary. Ditto E, G, and K, only there it's the weather.

That leaves F and L. With nothing in particular to make one any better than the other.

I can't let this go by without giving a hearty "thumbs up!" to "D", though.

I find the idea of "novice celibates" (which must imply that everyone is sexually active at inception, and at some point these "novice celibates" decide to stop) especially intriguing,and "celebate communities" (which, I'm guessin', must've been one-generation affairs!) I see as places where I definitely would not want to work or shop on a Monday morning!

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